 | December 12, 2001: "Green
Solvents for Catalysis - Environmentally Benign Reaction Media" The international conference "Green Solvents for Catalysis - Environmentally Benign Reaction Media" is scheduled for October 2002 in Germany. Invited speakers are: P T
Anastas, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, USA The first announcement and call for papers is now available at: http://www.dechema.de/gsfc2002. |
| December 12, 2001: Green
Chemistry Institute Fellowship Announcement In 2000, the Green Chemistry Institute (GCI) and the American Chemical Society (ACS) established the Joseph Breen Memorial Fund through the ACS' International Endowment Fund. This fund commemorates Joe Breen's commitment to and accomplishments for the advancement of Green Chemistry. Each year, on an annual basis, the fund awards one or more Joseph Breen Memorial Fellowships. The recipient(s) will be named as the Joseph Breen Memorial Fellows. The award funds will be used to sponsor the participation of a young international Green Chemistry scholar in a Green Chemistry technical meeting, conference or training program. For 2002 the fund will finance the travel and expenses of a young international Green Chemistry scholar to attend the Green Chemistry Gordon Research Conference in Oxford, UK, September 8-13, 2002. The criteria for award of this fellowship are as follows: "Young" international scholar is defined as undergraduate and above but below the level of Assistant Professor. The fellow must have a demonstrated research or educational interest in Green Chemistry. Green Chemistry for this purpose is defined as "The discovery and design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances." The fellow should be prepared to give a presentation or poster on their interest area. To apply for the 2002 Joseph Breen Memorial Fellowship potential recipients should send a letter, fax or e-mail of interest to: Dr. Mary M. Kirchhoff Green Chemistry Institute American Chemical Society 1155 Sixteenth Street N.W. Othmer Suite 330 Washington, DC 20036 202-872-4562 (phone) 202-872-6206 (fax) e-mail: m_kirchhoff@acs.org The letter should include a resume and a statement of interest of no more than one page in length. The statement should express the scholar's interest in Green Chemistry, experience in the field of Green Chemistry and any special connections to the work or teachings of Joe Breen. Closing date for receipt of the resume and statement of interest will be May 10, 2002. |
| November 26, 2001: NSFSTC
Member Wins Fellowship Seung-Lye Kim has won a Eugene Garfield Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship given by Beta Phi Mu, the international library & information science honor society. The fellowship amount is $1,500. |
| November 19, 2001: New
feature "Topics in Green Chemistry" now available in J.
Chem. Ed. A regular feature on "Topics in Green Chemistry" is introduced in the December issue of the Journal of Chemical Education (p. 1577). Submissions should have a green chemistry component and are invited in areas such as interdisciplinary courses, stand-alone courses, laboratory experiments, demonstrations, student research, incorporation into existing courses, case studies and materials development. Guidelines for submissions to the Journal of Chemical Education may be found at http://jchemed.chem.wisc.edu/Journal/Authors/index.html All submissions should be sent to the editorial office, noting on the cover that they are intended for Topics in Green Chemistry: Journal of Chemical Education University of Wisconsin-Madison 209 N. Brooks Street Madison, WI 53715-1116 October 29, 2001: A&T
Receives National ECO Award Selection was based on the university¹s outstanding leadership in academic programming, demonstrated commitment to preparing students for careers in the environmental field, long standing relationship with ECO and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and overall excellence. ECO is a 29-year-old national, nonprofit educational, training and leadership development organization dedicated to building leadership capacity in the environmental field. Its flagship initiative is a national internship program that places hundreds of students and graduates annually at leading companies, agencies and nonprofits across the country. Eleven years ago, ECO launched The Diversity Initiative, which was developed to address the under representation of people of color working in the environmental field. Since that time over 1,500 aspiring environmental professionals of color from across the nation have been exposed to environmental career opportunities. The goal of the Interdisciplinary Waste Management Institute (WMI) at North Carolina A&T State University is to create a talented pool of students who will become leaders in environmental fields. The WMI offers a certificate program in waste management which complements the undergraduate and graduate degrees. For more information, contact Dr. Godfrey Uzochukwu, director of the Waste Management Institute, at (336) 334-7030 or uzo@ncat.edu. |
| September 28, 2001: Cleaner
Chemistry for Cleaner Chips: Supercritical CO2 is Latest
Technique for Stripping Semiconductor Wafers, from Chemical
& Engineering News, 17 September 2001: Add a new use - semiconductor cleaning - to the many emerging industrial applications for supercritical CO2. CO2 producer Air Products & Chemicals & SC Fluids, a private equipment maker in Nashua, NH, have teamed up to complete the development of supercritical CO2 as a photoresist stripping agent for semiconductor wafers. Air Products says it will bring its experience in the supply, delivery & storage of high-pressure, high-purity bulk gases to the semiconductor industry. As part of the agreement, Air Products will install 1 of SC Fluids' cleaning machines at its R&D facility in Allentown, PA. Supercritical CO2 is a strong solvent that has been used for years in applications such as caffeine & hops extraction. But its "green" nature is giving rise to novel new uses in, for example, chemical synthesis & dry cleaning (C&EN, July 16, page 27). David Mount, SC Fluids' vice president of strategic development, says CO2 offers environmental & cost benefits to the semiconductor industry but that they are actually secondary. The main driver in electronics, according to Mount, is that existing wet-chemical stripping techniques are reaching their theoretical limits as circuit line architecture gets smaller. "We think that at 0.18 µm & below, wet chemistry just won't clean these things out because of surface tension & capillary force," he says. Supercritical CO2, on the other hand, has "zero surface tension," he says. "There are no features we cannot wet." SC Fluids has a development relationship with IBM & last week shipped a "beta" version of its cleaning machine to IBM's research complex in East Fishkill, NY. It's also working with ATMI, a top supplier of specialty materials & equipment to the semiconductor industry. At least one other company - Supercritical Systems of Freemont, Calif. - is pursuing CO2 technology as well. Last year, it formed a joint development venture with Praxair, one of Air Products' industrial gases rivals; soon after, it was acquired by Tokyo Electron Ltd., a big semiconductor equipment company. Supercritical Systems President Max Biberger says the company continues to actively advance its technology & equipment. However, he says it isn't providing progress updates "until the product is ready." Providers of conventional cleaning chemicals are watching intently. Dana Durham, director of Ashland Specialty Chemical's ACT unit, a leading supplier of photoresist strippers, acknowledges that the new technology could be a threat. however, he points out that the new machines both rely on traditional chemicals to do the cleaning job effectively. A month ago, Durham says, Ashland launched an agreement with a semiconductor equipment supplier aimed at developing chemistry tat will work with CO2 systems. "CO2 technology is not proven but if it's successful we want to be one of the first players," he says. - Michael McCoy |
| September 19, 2001: Poised
for Profits, Academia Now Patenting Saleable Finds from the
Charlotte Observer,
10 September 2001: For most of their existence, universities churned out ideas and gave them away for free. They've wised up. Now, they're patenting their discoveries so companies have to pay to use them. They're also starting companies of their own. It's another way universities - in their drive to pay for booming research operations - are acting more like businesses. As with the pursuit of corporate money, the efforts have sparked concerns about whether universities are becoming too commercial. It's also generated debate about how to divvy up any profits. Advocates argue that such aggressive entrepreneurship is essential when state money is harder to come by and federal money isn't growing as fast. "We don't give away football tickets, why should we give away technology?" says Mark Crowell, head of UNC Chapel Hill's office of technology development. Critics say profits from publicly funded research should go back to taxpayers. And Congress has asked the National Institutes of Health to examine whether taxpayers get enough payback. "The federal government & you & me, through taxes, pay to develop an invention. Then we give it to a company to sell back to us, so we end up paying for it twice," says Cleveland State University professor Michael Davis, who studies the issue. Nationally, universities earned $641 million from licensing their discoveries in 1999, according to the Association of University Technology Managers. Profits aren't guaranteed, however. Carolinas universities still pour millions more into their research than they collect. Big bucks come only from blockbuster discoveries and Carolinas universities have yet to produce one. Florida State University, for example, collected more than $56 million in licensing fees in 1999 because a professor there invented the cancer drug Taxol. In the Carolinas, the efforts are just starting to pay off. NCSU, the most successful so far, collected $7.8 million in royalties & licensing fees in 1999, up from $1.1 million in 1991. The most lucrative NCSU invention is Easy Eggs, pasteurized liquid eggs that a plant sciences professor invented for restaurants. Safer & easier to store than eggs in a shell, they have earned NCSU about $1.8 million annually, administrators said. It may sound like a lot but it represents only a small percentage of the school's $800 million total budget. But profit is not the only goal. Administrators also want to control how their inventions are used and make sure they get to market. "If we create a better mousetrap or a better light bulb, we want it out there," says Michael Ronning, NCSU's assistant vice chancellor for research. Still, some faculty members worry that patents restrict access to knowledge. Others say the emphasis on getting products to market is forcing professors to give up pure research that could benefit society. "The best research is the product of free inquiry but we're moving more toward proprietary research," says John Riddle, a history of science professor at NCSU. "In the long run, that will harm the university." A Cleaner Way to Dry Clean Universities began patenting their inventions in earnest in the 1980s after Congress passed a law that encouraged the practice. In the years since, the number of patents issued to U.S. universities has skyrocketed from less that 250 a year in 1980 to more than 2,000 a year today. More recently, universities have focused on helping professors start their own companies called spin-offs. "This is the fastest way to get something from the benchtop into something that actually benefits people," says Spencer Lemons, director of the office of technology asset management at Wake Forest. Spin-offs can also have a positive effect on the local economy. Technology transfer, the movement of ideas from universities to the marketplace, adds more than $33.5 billion to the US economy & supports 280,000 jobs each year according to the Association of University Technology Managers. That's especially important in the Carolinas, as their economies move away from agriculture.
UNC-Charlotte's 1st spin-off, Digital Optics, now employs about 140
workers. The company develops chips that transmit voice & data. |
| August 2, 2001: SENATOR
EDWARDS INTRODUCES WASHINGTON
– Senator John Edwards on Wednesday introduced legislation to offer a
tax credit to dry cleaners who use environmentally-friendly technology. “We
want clean clothes, but not at the expense of a clean environment,” Senator
Edwards told a hearing of the Senate’s Small Business Committee. “We
need to make safer, cleaner technology available and affordable to small
dry cleaning businesses across the country.” Dr.
Joseph DeSimone, a professor at the University of North Carolina and
N.C. State University, has developed the technology to clean clothes
without dirtying the environment. He
and a group of graduate students were searching for better ways to make
plastic but instead discovered a safer way to dry clean.
The method uses liquid carbon dioxide and special detergents in
place of harmful solvents. The
measure authored by Senator Edwards would give a 20 percent tax credit to
dry cleaners who switch to environmentally-friendly and energy-efficient
methods like the one pioneered by Dr. DeSimone.
A similar bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives
earlier this year and has the support of Physicians for Social
Responsibility and the Sierra Club. “We
can prevent pollution and protect people by promoting safer, cleaner
alternatives to traditional dry cleaning,” Senator Edwards said. “This
bill provides incentives, not regulations, for dry cleaners to clean up
their act.” Toxics
and flammable solvents are used by ninety-five percent of the 35,000 dry
cleaners in the country. These solvents can leak or spill from storage tanks,
contaminating the ground and water and creating a public health risk.
People
who come in contact with high concentrations of dry cleaning chemicals may
suffer dizziness, headaches, sleepiness, confusion, nausea, difficulty
speaking and walking, unconsciousness and even death. Exposure may also
lead to birth defects and leukemia. Thousands
of families at Camp LeJeune Marine Base in North Carolina may have been
exposed to water tainted by an off-base dry cleaner during the early
1980's. The U.S. Public
Health Service is studying these families to learn more about the adverse
health effects of dry cleaning solvents. “Everyone–small business owners, employees, consumers and the environment–can benefit from cleaner technology,” said Senator Edwards. “It makes sense to provide dry cleaners a modest tax incentive to do what’s right.” |
| July 23, 2001: Gordon
Research Conference Green Chemistry 8-13 September 2002 Queens College, Oxford, UK Key themes include: New Green Synthetic Methods, Chemical Biology Elucidation, Atom Economy, Clean Oxidation, Asymmetric Catalysis, Heterogeneous Catalysis, Novel Reaction Media, Alternative Feedstocks, Solar Energy, etc. The Co-Chairs are keen to encourage all participants in the above meeting to present a research poster. Also, selected poster presenters will be invited to make oral contributions of their very latest results. Please contact Jim Bashkin or Adrian Kybett with a 100 word (maximum) poster proposal.* Note that registration numbers are strictly limited and registration is via application; online applications may be made at www.grc.uri.edu/attend.htm. 2002 Co-Chairs and further details: James K Bashkin Pharmacia Corporation R3A 800 N. Lindbergh Blvd. St. Louis, MO 63167 USA Tel +1 (314) 694 3244 Fax +1 (314) 694 3479 james.k.bashkin@pharmacia.com Adrian P Kybett Royal Society of Chemistry Science Park, Cambridge UK CB4 0WF Tel +44 (0) 1223 432306 Fax +44 (0) 1223 420247 Kybetta@rsc.org 2002 Co-Vice-Chairs: Robin D Rogers (University of Alabama, USA) John C Warner (UMass, Boston, USA) Past Chairs: Paul Anastas, OSTP, Washington, DC, USA James Clark, York, UK Stephen DeVito, US EPA Istvan Horvath, Budapest, Hungary Roger Sheldon, Delft, The Netherlands Bill Tumas, Los Alamos, USA Tracy Williamson, EPA, Washington, DC, USA Gordon Research Conferences, PO Box 984, West Kingston, RI 02892-0984, USA app@grcmail.grc.uri.edu www.grc.uri.edu/ Footnote *See www.acs.org/education/greenchem/principles.html Appendix A selection of recommended Green Chemistry sites... http://www.rsc.org/greenchem http://www.chemsoc.org/gcn/ http://www.lanl.gov/projects/green/index.html http://www.acs.org/education/greenchem/ http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/greenchemistry/ http://web.chem.monash.edu.au/GreenChem www.grc.uri.edu/programs/2002/green.htm http://bama.ua.edu/~cgm/ Finally... We hope that this message is of interest to you and/or your colleagues. Please accept our apologies for any cross-posting or duplicate mailing. We have tried to send this mailing only to scientists to whom it may be of interest, or who may be kind enough to forward it to colleagues with Green Chemistry interests. Please contact Adrian Kybett should you wish to receive no further mailing on this subject. |
| July 06, 2001: The
Gustavus John Esselen Award for Chemistry in the Public Interest Awarded
to Joseph M. Desimone at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA on 29 April
2001 |
| July 02, 2001: CERSP
Co-Sponsors Pre-College Workshop at NC A&T On June 27, 2001, the 11th Pre-College Environmental Technology and Waste Management Workshop was conducted at North Carolina A&T State University, Greensboro, N. C. The Workshop was sponsored by the U. S. Department of Energy (Savannah River Office) and the National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center for Environmentally Responsible Solvents and Processes (CERSP). Prof. Godrey Uzochuckwu (NC A&T), Dr. Darlene
Taylor (UNC-CH) and Dr. Mary Louise Bellamy (NCSU) all of the CERSP
assisted in conducting the workshop. More than 60 high school students
attended. The
Waste Management Institute (WMI) offers a certificate program for students
who have completed the required course work (18 credit hours) in waste
management. The certificate
complements the undergraduate degree. The WMI is supported by
the following academic units at North Carolina A&T: Animal Science,
Agricultural Education, Agricultural Economics, Architectural Engineering,
Biology, Business Administration, Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Civil
Engineering, Computer Science, Construction Management & Safety,
Economics, Education, Electrical Engineering, History, Human Environment
and Family Science, Industrial Engineering, Mathematics, Mechanical
Engineering, Nursing, Natural Resources, Physics, Political Science,
Psychology and Sociology and Social Work. |
| June 29, 2001: Professor
Royce Murray Profiled in Herald-Sun Article HE HAS THE RIGHT CHEMISTRY (Chapel Hill Herald 5-28-01): After four decades at UNC, Chemistry Professor Royce Murray still loves his job, including most recently leading a task force planning the new Science Complex. "We're here to do research, teaching and service," said his colleague in chemistry, Holden Thorp. "You probably won't find someone else at the university who has done so well at all three." http://www.heraldsun.com |
| June 29, 2001: The
Economist Highlights Professor DeSimone and Our Center Chemistry Professor Joseph DeSimone is providing an interesting model for encouraging collaboration between theoreticians and practitioners, through the Science and Technology Center for Environmentally Responsible Solvents and Processes. The Center, which includes scientists from UNC-Chapel Hill and four other universities, includes a social scientist on each of its research teams. The idea is to analyze communication patterns between the participants and to suggest improvements for making them more effective. http://www.economist.com (June 23, 2001 issue) |
| June 29, 2001: 6
Triangle Entrepreneurs Recognized As Critical to National Entrepreneurial
Market
CHARLOTTE, June 21, 2001 – David Jessen, Partner with Ernst & Young, today announced the winners of the Carolinas’ 2001 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® awards at a gala event at the Hilton Charlotte & Towers. Triangle Awards Recipients include: Dr. John Plachetka of Pozen, Dr. Joseph DeSimone of Micell Technologies, Jud Ammons of Ammons, Inc., Dr. Fred Eshelman of PPD,Jud Bowman of Pinpoint Networks, Inc. and Roxanne Quimby of Burt’s Bees. The 2001 Entrepreneur Of The Year award recipients are:
Health Products Entrepreneur Of The Year: •
Dr. John Plachetka, CEO/President, Pozen, Inc. located in Chapel
Hill, Plachetka is recognized for his company’s innovative practice with pharmaceutical research organizations. Technology
Entrepreneur Of The Year: • Dr. Joseph DeSimone, Co-founder and Chairman, Micell Technologies. located in Raleigh, DeSimone is recognized for his help in discovering cleaning solutions used in a variety of industries. Real Estate Entrepreneur Of The Year: •
Jud Ammons, President/Owner, Ammons, Inc. located in Raleigh Ammons is recognized for becoming one of the largest real estate developers in the southeast. Health Services Entrepreneur Of The Year: •
Dr. Fred Eshelman, CEO, PPD, located in Wilmington/Durham,
Eshelman has led PPD to become a leading global provider of
discovery and development resources for the pharmaceutical and
biotechnology industries. E-Software
Entrepreneur Of The Year: •
Jud Bowman, President, Pinpoint Networks, located in Durham, Bowman is recognized for delivering a broadband of applications for global service providers. Manufacturing
Entrepreneur Of The Year: •
Roxanne Quimby, President, Burt’s Bees, located in Raleigh, Burt’s Bees is a leading manufacturer of natural personal care products due to Quimby’s creation. E-Business & Products • Robert Kear, Co-founder/Chief Strategy Officer, YOUcentric, located in Charlotte, Kear is recognized for his company’s development of a mass-customized Ebusiness relationship management software. Financial Services Entrepreneur Of The Year: • Daivd Whitcomb, Founder/Chairman, Automated Trading Desk, located in Mt. Pleasant, SC Whitcomb is recognized as a leading researcher in securities market microstructure. Services Entrepreneur Of The Year: • William Boyd, CEO, Muzak, located in Fort Mill, SC Boyd is recognized for his company’s use of Audio Architecture for businesses. Master Entrepreneur Of The Year: •
Dave Maguire, Chairman/CEO, KEMET Corporation, located in
Greenville, SC For the past 40 years, Maguire has helped develop KEMET into one of the world’s leading manufacturer of tantalum capacitors. The banquet, held at the Charlotte Hilton & Towers, on June 21 marked the end of an intensive search to identify and recognize the Triangle’s outstanding entrepreneurs. The Award Recipients are now eligible to participate in the National Entrepreneur Of The Year awards program, which is designed to honor outstanding owners of fast-growing companies in the U.S.. The program recognizes entrepreneurs who have demonstrated excellence and extraordinary success in such areas as innovation, financial performance, and personal commitment to their businesses and communities. The national search will culminate at a black-tie awards gala in Palm Springs, California, on November 17, 2001, where national finalists and the Entrepreneur Of The Year award winners will be announced and celebrated by more than 2,000 attendees. Previous Entrepreneur Of The Year award winners have included a virtual "Who's Who" of business leaders, such as Michael Dell of Dell Computer Corporation, Jim McCann of 1-800 Flowers, Steve Case of America Online and Howard Schultz of Starbucks Coffee. Scott Kriens, chairman, president and CEO of Juniper Networks, which has quickly become a household name in the high-end router market, was the 2000 National Entrepreneur of the Year. The independent panel of judges, which selected the Award Recipients, consisted of: · John Belk, CEO/Owner, Belk, Inc. · James Boyd, Executive Vice President/Treasurer/Chief Financial Officer, The InterTech Group, Inc. · Monica Doss, President, Council for Entrepreneurial Development · Mark Esposito, Vice President Global Sales, NASDAQ Stock Market · Stan Mandel, Executive Director, Angell Center for Entrepreneurship · Christopher Matton, Partner, Kilpatrick Stockton, LLP · Chuck Pringle, Chairman of the Board, South Carolina Research Authority · Ruth Shuck, Managing Director, First Base Ventures · Rollie Tillman, Director, Kenan-Flager Business School, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Founded and produced by Ernst & Young LLP and nationally co-sponsored by USA Today, CNN, the Nasdaq Stock Market, and the Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the awards will be sponsored locally by Kilpatrick Stockton LLP and The North Carolina Business Journal in the search for the nation's best entrepreneurs. Recipients of the Entrepreneur Of The Year award become lifetime members of the Entrepreneur Of The Year Hall of Fame. |
| June 20, 2001: Center
Issues RFP for Fiscal 2002-2003 Funding An RFP for Funding for Fiscal 2002-2003 was issued June 8, 2001. An abstract and a complete RFP document are available online. A discussion of the RFP was held with faculty and students by videoconference on June 14. A video tape is available from Vicki Haithcock for those interested in responding but unable to attend the meeting. An RFP Form is available online for the convenience of applicants. |
| June 20, 2001: Center
Participates in CNSF Exhibition in Washington On June 13, 2001, Ev Baucom participated in the
7th Annual Exhibition and Reception in Washington, DC, sponsored by the
Coalition for National Science Funding.
CNSF includes nine scientific societies and consortia and is
supported by many others. There
were 31 exhibits. Our STC
participated in order to support NSF in its efforts to gain higher funding
by demonstrating the value for the taxpayer of investment in our Center.
Discussions emphasized potential applications for our fundamental science,
the innovations we are bringing to education, and the critical need for
federal support of long-range research in light of declining industrial
expenditures in this area. In
total, offices of at least 12 members of Congress (including nine
directly) and ~30 staff members were contacted.
These focused on the North Carolina delegation and members of the
House Science Committee. Deputy
Director of NSF, Dr. Joseph Bordogna, also visited the exhibit. |
| June 20,
2001: New video links added to North Carolina Team of MBAs Wins
World's Leading Business-Plan Competition
back to the top June 14, 2001: CERSP
funding during Fiscal 2002-2003 | ||||||||||||
| June 11, 2001: Forbes'
Paper on Micelles Wins Award The paper "Time Resolved Electron Spin Resonance of Spin Correlated Micelle Confined Radical Pairs: Shape of the Anti-Phase Structure" by V.F. Tarasov and M.D.E. Forbes, has won the Sir Harold Thompson award given by Spectrochimica Acta and Elsevier. This award was given for the best paper published in Spectrochimica Acta in the year 2000, decided on unanimously by the journal’s board of editors. Congratulations Malcolm! | ||||||||||||
| June 5, 2001: New
Economies Rank: Austin 2nd, RTP-Area 4th According to a recent study released by the Progressive Policy Institute, the think tank for the Democratic Leadership, the RTP-Area ranked 4th among "New Economo" cities - primarily due to the strength of its three research universities: NC State University, UNC-Chapel Hill, and Duke University. Austin's 2nd place is mainly based on the amount of High-Tech Jobs available in the area but also in "Degrees Granted in Science and Engineering" and the number of "Utility Patents" issued to companies or individuals.
| ||||||||||||
| June 1, 2001:
Prof.
Ruben Carbonell, Co-Director of the CERSP and Director of the
Kenan Center for Utilization of CO2 in Manufacturing, has
been invited to serve on a panel on “The Ingredients of Innovation”
at the Southern Growth Policies Board annual meeting.
Each
year, the Southern Growth Policies Board presents a conference that
focuses on a significant issue of the time. This year Southern Growth
presents its 2001 Annual Conference: Inventing
the Knowledge Economy. Several
Governors from southern states as well as leading experts on technology
commercialization and innovation will be featured speakers. The
meeting will be held from June 24-26, 2001 in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
The topics will serve to
set future public policy initiatives that are necessary to lead the South
to future economic growth based on technology
innovation and commercialization. Most of the topics of the
conference revolve around the four major elements of innovation:
Prof. Carbonell’s
presentation will deal with the integration of these four elements in the
Kenan Institute support of the establishment of the Kenan Center, the NSF
STC and some of the commercialization efforts that have arisen from these
(Micell, DuPont’s TEFLON (tm) market development facility, Hangers, MIS)
etc. His remarks will emphasize how the work of the Kenan Center and
the NSF STC exemplifies the best in the integration of these four elements
for economic growth from technology. The conference web site is www.southern.org/conference.html | ||||||||||||
| May 30, 2001: New Smart
Board display at NC State for videoconferencing During the May 24 NSFSTC videoconference we could use for the first time the new Smart Board at NC State in EGRC 313. This big touchscreen gives us the possibility to write direct into the screen to answer questions, to flip easily between the slides. The screen has a much higher resolution the the old TV monitors. Similar Smart Boards are in use at Austin, Chapel Hill and Greensboro.
|
| May 15, 2001: UNC MBA team
wins MOOT CORP, premier business plan competition
University of Texas Press Release MOOT CORP® Global Champion Video Clip MOOT
CORP® Internet Champion Video Clip "I especially appreciate how the UNC-Chapel
Hill MBAs utilized technology developed at their university as the basis for
their winning venture,” said Gary M. Cadenhead, director of the MOOT
CORP Program Twenty-eight teams from around the world competed in
the opening rounds and five teams made it to the finals.
More about the competition can be found at www.mootcorp.org. | ||||
| May 8, 2001: Lab Pictures
from NC A&T Greensboro now online.
Both of this links are located on our home page, right of the Center-News
box. | ||||
| May 7, 2001: Alcoa Foundation Distinguished Engineering
Research Award to Prof.
Ruben Carbonell. The College of Engineering and Engineering Foundation at NCSU allocated the Alcoa Research Awards to encourage research among its faculty and to recognize research achievements. This award was made for continuing outstanding research achievements over a period of the last five years at North Carolina State University. The award will consist of a certificate and a $5,000 cash award. |
| April
30, 2001:
Environmental Fellowship to NCSU Student
| ||
| April 11, 2001 (no April fool):
Engineer and their weird numbers - The Influence of the Horse on the
Space Shuttle (or ... how the future world is build :-) The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England, and the US railroads were built by English expatriates. Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used. Why did 'they' use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing. Okay! Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that's the spacing of the wheel ruts. So who built those old rutted roads? The first long distance roads in Europe (and England) were built by Imperial Rome for their legions. The roads have been used ever since. And the ruts? The initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels and wagons, were first made by Roman war chariots. Since the chariots were made for, or by Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. Thus, we have the answer to the original question. The United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches derives from the original specification for an Imperial Roman war chariot. Specifications and bureaucracies live forever. So, the next time you are handed a specification and wonder which horse's rear came up with it, you may be exactly right. Because the Imperial Roman war chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the back ends of two war horses. Now, the twist to the story ... There's an interesting extension to the story about railroad gauges and horses' behinds. When we see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory at Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs might have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory had to run through a tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track is about as wide as two horses behinds. So, the major design feature of what is arguably the world's most
advanced transportation system was determined by the width of a Horse's
Rump! | ||
| March 26, 2001. The
future of chemical research and enterprise (C&E News). The March 26, 2001 issue of Chemical and Engineering News celebrates the 125th anniversary of the American Chemical Society. Included in the issue are essays from 171 influential young chemists, engineers and business leaders describing their visions for the future of chemical research and enterprise. Among the contributors is Professor Joseph DeSimone, Director of the NSF-STC for Environmentally Responsible Solvents and Processes, who provides his thoughts on the role of entrepreneurship in chemistry and chemical engineering. Link to C&E News Article (Acrobat Reader required) |
| March 22, 2001. NSFSTC
Meeting - Research Discussion: - See the PowerPoint Presentation online - Download the PowerPoint slides (right click the link (PC) or Apple Click on Mac) | ||||||||
| March 22, 2001. After more
than 10.000 web site visitors we changed our look today. The modifications
main goals were:
If you have any comments or questions, please send an email to the webmasters. | ||||||||
| March 16, 2001. Denis
Gray, Professor, Psychology in the Public Interest Program, NCSU
and PI with CERSP and his collaborators have recently completed an
NSF-sponsored study on inter-state migration of scientists and engineers.
The report examines the factors that may be contributing to the "brain
drain" problem that is troubling many states across the country.
The soon-to-be released report identifies factors that explain which
scientists and engineers will take jobs in the state where they received
their education and which will leave. It also discusses policy options for
influencing these decisions. The report has been highlighted in the media
including stories in the Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio and
USA Today. Check this:
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